


Celestial Navigation

by violet_storms



Series: femslash february 2021 [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/F, Femslash February, Gift Fic, Mentions of Myth & Folklore, Multi, Poetic, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-21
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-25 20:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30094506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_storms/pseuds/violet_storms
Summary: This is how the pirate meets the mermaid meets the explorer, and this is how they fall in love.
Relationships: Cho Chang/Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Series: femslash february 2021 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2144880
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Celestial Navigation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alexanderavery998](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexanderavery998/gifts).



> Happy birthday to my favorite fanfic writer in the world, and one of the best people I've ever had the privilege of knowing: this fic is for you. Love you, A!

The first two meet at sea.

One is a pirate with a kind heart and a sun-filled smile, who takes to the water not out of love for gold, but out of love for the sea and its shining tides. They call her the Moonlight Maiden, for none have ever seen her ship during the day; they whisper that she captains a ghostly vessel, that she can make you fall in love with a single word.

The other is a mermaid with an adventurer’s soul and a fiery spirit. All sailors know her, but none so far have been able to cast a net well enough to snare her, and they are certain by now that none ever will. They call her Thalassa, sea-goddess. It is not her name, but over the years, she has grown fond of it.

They meet, by some accident of fate, at midnight, in a cove off the shores of an unimportant land. “I thought you were a myth,” says the pirate, when she sees her, and the mermaid laughs.

“You’re the myth here, not me, ghost rider. I must say, I did not expect a ghost to be so beautiful.”

“I am no ghost,” promises the pirate, holding out her hand. “Come over. Find out.”

So that is how the first two become lovers: through myths, magic, and moonlight, and in another world, it is enough.

In this one, there is waiting yet to do.

  


The next two meet on a ship.

One is a fabled explorer, seeking to find and map each of the seven seas. She has hair the color of iron and all the strength of it, but her mind is made from mercury, mysterious and always shifting.

The other is the Moonlight Maiden of whom tales are often told. She takes no prisoners, only passengers, but her legend is well-known, and no sailor wishes to see her ship upon the horizon. When it appears, one night in summer, the explorer sighs in resignation.

“I have a mission,” she says, when the ships pull alongside each other. “I have oceans yet to map. Do not delay me.”

“Who says you cannot still map them?” asks the pirate. “I will take you.”

“I may wish to go to the ends of the ocean,” says the explorer.

“Then we will go to the ends of the ocean,” says the pirate with a smile. “I understand curiosity as well as you do.”

“Good,” says the explorer, and that is how the second two become lovers: through stories, secrets, and science, and in another world, it is enough.

In this one, there is waiting yet to do.

  


The final two meet on the sand.

One is a daughter of the ocean with a green-glass tail and hair like flames, who has grown restless after so long underwater. She has begun to take to the rocks, to the shores, closer and closer to the world she can never quite be part of.

The other is a voyager with ink-stained fingers and endless papers trailing in her wake, who, having charted all the ocean that there is to chart, is surprised that she has still to find catharsis. There must be more yet to discover, she thinks, more yet to see; what that is, however, she is not sure.

They meet on a far-flung, undocumented isle, and when the explorer sees her the first thing she does is ask a question: “Is there another world beneath the sea? Will you tell me of it?”

“I will, but for a price,” says the mermaid. “Speak to me of your land above the earth. I wish to know more of how you live.”

“Fair is fair,” says the explorer. “Although it seems a one-sided bargain, for you are a mere creature of the sea, and I am a renowned scholar, and will be able to tell more, and better.”

“Is that a challenge?” asks the mermaid, raising one eyebrow, and that is how the last two become lovers: through competition, conversation, and concordance, and in another world, it is enough.

In this one, the waiting is nearly done.

  


For the three of them to come together is as easy as breathing.

The mermaid often visits the pirate’s ship. The pirate often invites the explorer on her travels. The explorer often meets the mermaid by the seaside. It does not take too long for them to be in the same space at the same time. It does not take too long for them to realize all that they have been to one another, and all that they could be.

There is much they already know of each other, and more that they will learn; they will learn their own faults, and strengths, and desires, and the way it all balances out, recklessness tempered by caution offset by curiosity fueled by a universal dream of something greater, something they can only achieve together. They will learn each other by heart, until they know one another in the way that only happens when you work for it, when you love someone enough to want to look inside their soul. 

There will be many tales told of them, in the years to come. No one gets their names completely right, or their backgrounds, or their appearances, but there are constants in all the fables. Sand, sea, and ship. Pirate, mermaid, and explorer.

There will be many endings written for them, in the years that follow. Some will say that there were broken hearts and angry tides. Some will say that there was everlasting love and tranquil waters. Some will insist they never existed. Some will be certain that they did.

One day soon, historians will draw three-pointed diagrams labeled with their names. Comparisons will come easily to them; they will call the pirate the moon, and the mermaid the sun, and the explorer the stars. The mermaid would laugh to see this. The explorer would shake her head. The pirate would simply smile and say, “Let them have their fantasies. We know who is truly who.”

There is one story that is seldom told, a coda forgotten by most. It speaks of a place that lies on no map, somewhere far in the infinite ocean. It speaks of one day a year, one moment in time, where the three are neither old nor young, neither human nor sea-creature, neither ghost nor living. It speaks of a mermaid who wakes with hair full of salt water and eyes clear; there is a mist rising on the water, and beyond it, a ship coming in to shore. This is a place where all currents lead. This is a place where all times do meet. This is a place where the explorer finds fulfillment, the mermaid finds peace, and the pirate is able to rest. The waters are still. The sky is dark. And the compass points, always, north.

**Author's Note:**

>   
>    
> 


End file.
